


This Is True Love (You Think This Happens Every Day?)

by GinnyBloomPotter



Series: The Ticking of My Pulse (The Clock in My Ear) [3]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Cute, F/F, First Dates, First Kiss, Fluff, Lesbian Vanya Hargreeves, THIS IS SO PURE, The Princess Bride References, They're so cute guys, Vanya Hargreeves-centric, Vanya's ace and gay and flustered
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-11
Updated: 2019-07-11
Packaged: 2020-06-26 05:22:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19761454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnyBloomPotter/pseuds/GinnyBloomPotter
Summary: Vanya and Zoe finally have their movie date.A sequel story to "Ask Yourself Now Where Would You Be (Without Days Like These)"





	This Is True Love (You Think This Happens Every Day?)

**Author's Note:**

> This was the purest thing to write. I love them. 
> 
> Story title is a quote from "The Princess Bride"

Why wouldn’t her hair lay right? And god this outfit was a stupid idea. She’d told Klaus that she couldn’t pull off his lacy, frilled dress. It was hanging shapelessly off of her, made to fit a much taller person, and even though she usually preferred clothes that hid her, this was a bit different. This was ridiculous. It was too big and too frilly and too girly and she felt like a low-budget, worse version of Allison. She needed her jeans back. 

She glanced at the clock. It was still only 6:00. She had time to change.

But Klaus would probably be upset…

What did it matter, really, though? This wasn’t his date. This was hers. And she wanted to wear jeans.

She compromised with the dark, embroidered ones that her brother had forced upon her the last time she let him drag her shopping. She’d only bought them because he swore they made her ass look incredible. She wasn’t sure she agreed, but she’d done it anyway, if only to appease him. 

She paired them with a gray sweater, maybe a little too big, a little too plain, but the embroidering on the jeans was enough right? She forced her feet into the boots she’d basically been living in since the weather had turned colder and then she went back to her mirror to fuss with her hair again. 

...Maybe if she twisted it?

She needed Toni here. Toni could french braid and dutch braid and maybe Vanya’s hair would behave if it was wrangled into a plait behind her head? Or maybe she should just shave it all off and not worry about it.

No. Bad. Bad idea. She needed her curtain of hair to hide behind. 

She messed with it for about five minutes before deciding it wasn’t worth it and running a brush through it quickly, hoping for the best. 

Should she put on makeup? Zoe would, she knew, and she didn’t want Zoe to think that she wasn’t putting in as much effort. But she also knew that Zoe was really fucking good at makeup and she could only just manage mascara without messing everything up. 

...Well, a little mascara wouldn’t hurt. And concealer. Her under-eyes were a mess. And was that a zit on her chin? Yeah, okay, so concealer it was. Fuck, how did anyone blend this properly? Maybe her concealer wasn’t the right color. She’d gotten it during the summer and she hadn’t  _ thought _ she’d tanned at all but obviously she had because she was paler now and the concealer was a shade too dark. 

She rubbed at the concealer with her fingers until she could no longer see random beige spots on her face. It wasn’t great. It didn’t cover everything well enough. But it wasn’t awful, she supposed. 

There was a knock at the door. Vanya glanced back at the clock. 

How the fuck was it already 6:30?

“Vanya!” Zoe greeted when she opened the door, and fuck, but Vanya knew she’d look like a fucking goddess. 

Her red streaked braids were half pulled into a knot on top of her head. She was wearing a pink sweater and a black leather jacket and black jeans and high heeled black leather boots and dangly silver earrings that kept catching the light attractively. Her makeup was, as predicted, impeccable, with perfectly winged eyeliner and dark purple lipstick and sweeps of shimmer over her cheekbones and… fuck. She was gorgeous.

Vanya felt like a sack of potatoes. 

And yet Zoe’s eyes were sparkling as she looked at Vanya, and she beamed as she stepped into her apartment. 

“You look great!” she complimented, reaching up with one heavily ring-laden hand to run a finger along the shoulder seam of Vanya’s sweater, which actually hit somewhere around her upper bicep. 

Vanya flushed heavily and shook her head. “Oh, I don’t know… God, look at you! You’re--”

Zoe’s smile never faded as she flicked a stray braid over her shoulder. “I know. I’m gorgeous. I put a lot of work into that, you know. I mean, I should hope.”

Vanya shook her head again. “No, but you are. Even beyond the effort, which I’m not complaining about, by the way, I just… I mean… Ugh, I’m sorry. I suck at words--”

“You’re cute,” she said. “And it’s nice that I can send you speechless like that.”

Vanya’s blush intensified. She rubbed at the back of her neck uncomfortably. Zoe must have noticed, because her smile softened, then faded, and she changed the subject.

“Are you ready to go?” She didn’t sound upset, despite her lack of grin, and Vanya was relieved. 

“Yeah,” she said. “Just need to grab my jacket and my bag.”

She retrieved them from where they hung, waiting for her on the back of a kitchen chair. With a shared smile, they left.

* * *

“So how do you feel about _The Princess_ _Bride?_ ” Zoe asked as they walked.

Vanya’s eyes lit up. “Oh! I watched that one a few years ago with Quentin and Toni! From what I remember, it was pretty good.”

Zoe mock-gasped. “Pretty good? It’s a classic. It’s amazing. It’s--”

“Something you’ll have to show me at some point?”

Zoe grinned. “Well, now that you mention it, there’s a small theater a few blocks away that’s doing a special screening. I know we were going to see  _ Shazam,  _ but--”

“We can switch,” Vanya reassured. “As long as this small theater has good popcorn. I won’t have our bet tainted by improper materials.”

She had a moment, a sudden spark of  _ oh shit, I really have been hanging around Quentin too much _ , but Zoe didn’t seem to notice, because she laughed. 

“Oh, well that wouldn’t do at all. I wouldn’t know if they have good popcorn-- I’ve never gone before.”

“Well, that’s okay. If they don’t have good popcorn, we’ll just have to go somewhere else another time.” 

A hopeful little smile spread over Zoe’s face. “Another time? You want to do this again?”

Vanya’s face turned red again, and she hoped fiercely that she’d eventually be able to keep that particular reaction at bay, because it was getting a bit ridiculous. “Only if you want--”

“Oh, I do! I definitely do!”

She gave a shy, flustered little grin. So maybe she wasn’t quite a sack of potatoes after all? Or maybe Zoe just really liked potatoes? 

Zoe’s hand found hers. Their fingers naturally intertwined. It felt good. It felt… safe. Nice. Good. 

Really, really good.

* * *

The movie theater’s popcorn was amazing. And they sold Buncha Crunch, which was Zoe’s favorite, and so they could swap. 

They sat in the middle of the half-empty theater, and while they waited for the movie to start, Vanya opened the box of chocolate and shook one piece out into her palm. She contemplated it.

“Have you never eaten chocolate before?” Zoe asked.

“Of course I’ve had chocolate. Just not this kind. It’s a… fun shape.”

“It’s awesome. Someone tried to tell me once that I should just get a regular Nestle Crunch bar and I was just like… uhh, you’re missing out on half the fun.”

Vanya raised an eyebrow and shrugged, then tossed the piece into her mouth. 

“You have to let it melt on your tongue,” Zoe told her. “Then you crunch.”

Vanya listened, and she pushed the chocolate around her mouth thoughtfully, until all that were left were the little rice pieces.

“...So?”

Vanya shrugged. “It’s chocolate. Chocolate’s great. It’s better with texture, so the rice balls are great. Popcorn is still the best.”

Zoe shook her head. “OK well then let’s wait for the movie to start and then we can actually judge.”

“You just don’t want to accept that I’m right,” Vanya teased as she stole a piece of popcorn from the bucket on Zoe’s lap. 

Zoe’s retort was cut off by the darkening of the theater. She grinned excitedly and nudged Vanya gently with her shoulder. 

“Here we go…”

The movie was better in the theater, Vanya decided. Or maybe it was just the company. But she was enjoying herself. So much so, that she hardly noticed when she absentmindedly took a piece of popcorn with some chocolate already in hand. Both were put into her mouth at once, and she paused with a frown. 

Slowly, as quietly as she could, she dumped the rest of the box of chocolate in with the popcorn. 

Zoe sent her a questioning look. Vanya just stared pointedly at the bucket then back at the movie screen. 

She didn’t miss Zoe’s little gasp of wonder when she tried the mixture though, and she grinned. 

She felt her lean in close to her and then there was a puff of air against her ear that made her shiver. 

“Genius,” she breathed. 

Vanya felt her face heat up. She couldn’t tell if it was the compliment or the intimacy of the moment that flustered her, but she almost missed the ROUS attack trying to puzzle it out.

* * *

“Wait,” Vanya stopped as they approached the door to her apartment. “Who won the bet then?”

Zoe leaned against the wall beside her and hummed. “Well, technically, no one. Or both of us. Because it was both together that won. Or… I guess it was you.”

Vanya paused as she slid her key into the lock to give her a puzzled look. 

“Because it was your idea to combine them,” Zoe explained, and she nodded with a little “Ah.”

“And what do I get? For winning, I mean?”

Zoe smiled mischievously. She started leaning down slowly, giving Vanya plenty of time to pull away. She was surprised when she found that she didn’t want to.

Zoe’s lips brushed gently against her left cheek. She only pulled away enough to whisper. “How’s that as a prize?” She asked, breath fanning across Vanya’s skin delicately. 

Vanya swallowed thickly as she pulled further away. “I can think of a better one,” she said, eyes on Zoe’s still perfectly painted lips. 

Zoe seemed to catch her meaning, because she smirked. She leaned in again, this time coming at her face straight on. Vanya tilted up her chin to greet her. 

“As you wish.”

**Author's Note:**

> Vanya's in love, guys. It finally happened. 
> 
> Vanya getting ready for her date is me getting ready for everything.
> 
> I'm not saying The Princess Bride is my favorite movie but it's certainly the biggest contender. Okay, so I think that makes it my favorite. I've written whole papers on it. #mediastudent
> 
> This is not to say that chocolate and popcorn are a perfect combination. I don't even know that I've tried it. I just thought it was a cute thing to do. 
> 
> Did you love it? I hope you loved it. Please tell me you loved it. Let me know?


End file.
